Ingredients
400G Italian ‘00’ grade flour, or strong white bread flour
3g fresh or ¼ tsp fast action yeast
10g salt
240g/ml water, at room temperature
2 tbsp olive oil plus a little more for kneading
a little semolina
For the topping:
tomato sauce made from 1lb fresh tomatoes
3-4 tbsp Kraft grated parmesan
smoked salt (optional)
a small bunch of basil leaves
150g good quality cooking mozzarella
3-5 slices of prosciutto, or Hormel cooked ham if preferred
a few cherry tomatoes
a few olives (optional)
olive oil
Instructions
Start the dough the night before you want to make the pizza. Mix the flour with the yeast and salt, add the water and oil and knead for about 10-15 minutes, until it’s smooth and elastic, doesn’t stick to your hands or bounces off the mixer bowl walls.
Place it in a large bowl covered with cling film and keep in ambient temperature for 18-24 hours.
Prepare the sauce and bring all the topping ingredients to room temperature. Halve the cherry tomatoes, squeeze out the seeds, sprinkle the cut surface with salt and place them cut side down on a paper towel, to drain the moisture.
Slice the mozzarella or tear it roughly. Thinly slice the olives, if using. Tear prosciutto slices into smaller pieces.
Divide the dough in three pieces (about 200g each), shape into balls and leave on a floured surface for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat a frying pan large enough for a pizza to fit in (30cm diameter) on the hob, until smoking.
Preheat the grill to the highest setting – I find that putting an upturned roasting tin in the grill compartment helps, otherwise the pizza won’t be sitting close enough to the heat source.
Stretch the dough balls out or roll them out with (although the latter is considered a cardinal sin) to discs about 25cm in diameter, making sure the rim is formed at the edge to catch the sauce.
Sprinkling some semolina under the dough disc might help transport it into the pan, if you want to use a peel.
When the pan is smoking hot transfer the dough disc into it, using a peel, just your hands or half-wrapping it around a rolling pin.
Lay it flat in the pan, spread the tomato sauce over it, sprinkle with parmesan and smoked salt, if using, add a few basil leaves, a third of the mozzarella pieces and the prosciutto chunks. Drizzle with olive oil and place a few cherry tomato halves and olive slices on it.
When the base starts to get charred (use a spatula to look underneath), take the pan off the hob and place it under the grill. This won’t take any time at all – as soon as the cheese starts to bubble, it’s ready.
Slide it off the pan onto a wooden board – this is a tricky bit as the large pan will be heavy and hot – cut with a pizza wheel and serve. Bring the pan back on the hob to smoking hot for the next pizza.
From: http://recipepatch.com/pizza-frying-pan-say
